Missed opportunity to overtake Anaheim as Sharks drop yet another game to a non-playoff team

SAN JOSE — The Nashville Predators became the third NHL team not going to the playoffs this season to sweep the Sharks.

Going a combined 0-2-2 against the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricane was probably troubling enough. But getting blanked by Nashville 3-0 on Saturday night when the Sharks knew that a victory would dramatically improve their odds of overtaking the Anaheim Ducks with only a handful of games left to play? Even moreso, no?

“We’ve talked about that all year,” Todd McLellan said of his team’s propensity to lose games to teams far below the Sharks in the standings. “It’s Game 79. So we’re running out of opportunities to play against teams that won’t make the playoffs to fix that problem. . . . Keep getting the same results. It’s almost insanity.”

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That topic’s the gist of the game story filed earlier and available online here .

But there was even more head-shaking and self-analysis after the loss and we’ll post some of it here now.

Any explanation for yet another loss to a non-playoff team?

Dan Boyle: “No, no explanation for it. On the goals we got beat on, just details. Body positioning and details. Something that 79 games in we should have dialed in by now. We were on the wrong side and it cost us a win tonight. . . . The goals they got were positioning mistakes whether it was body or stick. . . . As far as offensively, I don’t know. We just didn’t have any sustained pressure.”

Jason Demers: “I think after a game like LA, with all the excitement and enthusiasm we had, there’s always a worry that you’re going to have a letdown next game. With all the leadership in our room, we’ve just got to get up for games like this. Play hard, and play it like we played against LA. We didn’t. We’ve done that a lot this year. It’s concerning, for sure. We’ve just got to forget about it and worry about the next game coming up here in Anaheim.”

Boyle also minimized the better effort in the third period, when the Sharks got 19 of their 35 shots on Carter Hutton, their onetime prospect.

“I’ve said this before . . . being down three goals, that’s an easy game to play. I don’t think there’s too much to take into account. We obviously tried, but down three goals everybody’s taking chances. It’s not the type of hockey you’re going to see very often in the playoffs.”

BOX — Sharks have Sunday off. Things will be quiet here, too.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

The 23 active player limit goes away after the trade deadline. You have be under when you make the trade, but can add players after.
Teams under the cap often add a few players near the end of the season. A player with $2M annual salary has a salary cap hit of less then $25K per game. 3 games is less then $75K.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

You can dream…but the Avs got that Cup, and I’d be really p-o’d if I were a Nordiques fan.

FWIW, in my youth my friends & I used drive from Boston to Quebec for weekend trips quite often. That park along the St. Laurence, near the Chateau Frontenac (???) was really cool. Loved that city.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

If the Sharks had Quick, they’d be the Kings.

Alex

Seems like both the Ducks AND the Sharks want to play LA in the first round.

Sharkita

I agree! Thank goodness the Ducks lost last night.

Sharkita

That tuff schedule Ana played last week finally caught up to them and those come back wins in the third didn’t help either.

The Sharks will be the rested team, so I really don’t want to hear any excuses. I hope they are mentally in the game right when the puck drops.

Stevo

You know Wilma, infantile people such as Hockeynut come on here and say dengrating homophobic things, implying that Buddy Elf and I wear women’s undergarments… I find it childish too. So if your comment on childishness was directed at both he and I, then I take heart that we can agree on that much.

I apply a corollary of the Golden Rule when I’m here. Do unto others as they do unto you. Sorry if that’s unreasonable to your sensibilities.

Of course you don’t have to accept my apologies to you. Do as your level of maturity dictates.

And, likewise, you don’t have to accept the one from Hockeynut either.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

Thanks. I did a search for this and couldn’t find anything that specified it. I even read part of the official NHL rulebook, and at one point it mentions the 23 man roster, but that’s it. It’s sort of an assumed, beyond that. There’s no place in there that says “there will be a limit of 23 players on the active roster.” There is a rule that specifies 18 players plus 2 goaltenders. There’s also a quirky rule that says you can have a 19th player on the bench, but that player must be acting in the role of a coach, and cannot participate in the game, even in the event of injury. It’s the type of statement that was written because somewhere, at sometime, a creative coach snuck a guy into a game who wasn’t dressed at the beginning of the game, i.e., changed his roster during the game.

My spell check doesn’t like “snuck.” I use snuck in some contexts, and sneaked in others. I just looked it up, and there seems to be an issue of the evolution of language going on with the past tense of sneak. In the context of a coach cheating the rules, snuck feels better. Grammar lesson over.

GP_hockeyhappens

Based on your last paragraph, I started to write a poem but could only come up with a title:

“Geriatric Musings by Proofrock”

What do ya think?

Stevo

Once?

GP_hockeyhappens

English language is stupid. Once should be spelled Wunce. But of course this would then be pronounced Woonce.

Fire them all!

spooky

agreed
+ i think Torres is actually a healthy scratch these days.

Stevo

Wuntz. That’s my version 😉

Re my “Once?” post to you… I was chuckling at the thought that you had said fire everyone only once in your life.

For some reason, I doubt that’s the case.

Sharkita

Ana is playing tonight against Van. Ana has a ruff schedule ahead with little rest in between. I think we can take then on Wednesday but not so sure about Avs. Coyotes?

GP_hockeyhappens

LOL, well, yes, but then we’d be talking politics.

Otherwise, it would have been mocking certain commentators here aye.

Kahunakeli

Yeah he has been a real disappointment, I’d like to see him go. Been injured and under performed most of the time he has been here.

MLBSF

You’re another one who is obsessed with everything I write. I couldn’t care less what you say about the Sharks. But you on the other hand pace the house at night over what I write on this blog. It’s koo koo to say the least.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table…

Geez, a literary corner to WTC? Snow Shovel, where art thou?

Tom (fm Quinzee)

Once is eleven in Spanish, pronounced on-say.

But I like wunce better than once for this reason: wun-timer! Like Elmer Fudd announcing hockey. The antithesis of the T.S. Eliot reference.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

I’ll say this for you Stevo, you’re making all the right enemas.

GP_hockeyhappens

lmao!

Tom (fm Quinzee)

Buddy, I’ve been out of it for a few days and I can’t find that bracket link. What thread/posting is it posted in? Or anyone else can chime in. Thanks for posting it, Buddy. I’ve got some time to think about it now.

Of course he hasn’t entered… he talks a big game on here, but won’t back it in up in the competition.

(remember when he talked about the Ducks strength of schedule and penciled in wins for the Ducks against EDM… oops).

Clemenza

LMFAO!!!! You couldn’t be more mistaken with your look-at-me-world delusions of grandeur. 99.9% of the time I minimize your garbage so it doesn’t clutter up DP’s fine blog. You’ve got no info that any of us here need….& since you don’t have anything new to say, I really don’t sit & wait for you to regurgitate what you’ve already posted a thousand times….sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s true.

I just like to point out when you’re wrong….which is 99.9% of the time.

Hockeynut

Seems the Ducks have a goalie controversy of their own. Hiller has looked pretty bad lately.

Hockeynut

Hilarious that you call ME infantile?

Oh and Einstein, getting your panties in a bunch is a colloquial expression and has absolutely NOTHING homophobic in it’s intent.

Geez, you are young, but I didn’t think you were under 15.

Buddy Elf

And of course, he went silent after this.

Buddy Elf

So, do you point out he is wrong, or minimize? You claimed both.

Hockeynut

You are intelligent enough to know that opinions, by their nature can’t be “wrong or right” are you not? So to say anyone is “wrong” because you disagree with their opinion is a misnomer.

Clemenza

Don’t start, dude….

When all of the posts are stating that #’s 12 & 19 have no heart & are useless, that’s wrong, correct?

Given the fact that you actually discuss hockey in between dumping on the team, I figured you’d be intelligent enough to discern between the two, but I suppose I’m wrong…